A US official Saturday welcomed the admission by a former Philippine National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) official that he was the source of the audiotape allegedly recording a conversation between President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and an election commission official during last year's presidential election.

In a brief interview with local media, US Embassy Charge d'Affaires Joseph Mussomeli expressed his relief that the NBI official named Samuel Ong finally came out to claim himself as the source of the tape.

The US envoy said the United States will no longer be worried that it would continue to be dragged into the audiotape scandal.

"We're delighted that no one would think anymore that the US government (was behind the tape). That's a good thing," Mussomeli told the media after attending a National Day reception at the Malacanang presidential palace.

The audiotape contained the alleged conversation of President Arroyo and election officer Virgilio Garcillano discussing a plan on how to insure that Arroyo would win by a margin of 1 million votes over opposition presidential candidate, the late Fernando Poe Jr.

Ong said on Friday that he received the tape from a military officer in March this year. He is now taking refuge in a seminary in Metro Manila and police officials said they were preparing for a warrant of arrest against him.

US embassy officials have earlier reaffirmed their government's "unequivocal" support for the administration of President Arroyo, and they said the US government would oppose "any extra-constitutional or extra-legal efforts to any way undermine" the government of President Arroyo. Mussomeli said the US Embassy had known about the alleged recordings as early as April, but "we didn't take it that seriously."

"We want to take it seriously, we just don't think it's credible," he said.

He said the US Embassy had not issued any alerts for its citizens in the Philippines and that the consulate is not taking "any special precautions" in terms of security.

"We believe this has really grown out of proportion from what we know. Just as accurately, this is very serious because it distracts people from the real problems that we should be dealing with," the diplomat said.

Source: Xinhua